Work Text:
When Shadow had been given his latest mission brief that morning, he made sure his disappointed sigh was audible to Towers, where he'd been sat in said Commander's office. In what was notably a simple fetch quest and boring as to almost be an insult, it was for an item inside one of Eggman's abandoned facilities.
This item in question had raised alarm when the chaos signature appeared yesterday with no probable cause; after GUN monitored its position for several hours with no movement, they made the educated guess it was not a living being and instead an object. It was all very astute on their part and provided the notion that it was not a threat in the slightest. But, they were going to send Shadow anyway. Just in case.
On his own time, of course, they hadn't even set a real deadline to collect it, which only strengthened Shadow's suspicions that it was a purposeful time waster. This was so far below his capabilities it was effectively a coffee run.
Shadow was nothing but thorough and disciplined though and he wanted it completed by the end of day regardless of its nature. He'd tapped Rouge on the shoulder back at their desks to ask her to be his navigator, for protocol and all that bureaucratic red tape bullshit, however, she had a rare clash that left her unavailable for the afternoon. Shadow was loathe to have anyone but Rouge as his Nav, so he simply put her down on the mission brief slip anyway rather than ask someone else. It would be a true solo mission this time. Not that there would be any trouble involved, Shadow was confident of that.
Later that afternoon, Shadow found himself by the entrance of the base, the front door half-broken in. What resembled a rust bucket now, was the most recently abandoned property of Eggman; Sonic and his posse had drop kicked it into disuse not even 3 months ago. Eggman had gone into hiding since then and not resurfaced. Perhaps then, there could be potential danger beyond, but Shadow hadn't sensed a single badnik in a 10 mile radius.
This mission seemed so laughably easy that if anything were to go wrong, then Shadow would have to begrudgingly admit his own fault…
"This is your fault, hedgehog!" Shadow snarled into Sonic's face. It was neither effective nor intimidating as they were both hanging several metres off the ground, bound by a rope so tight that Shadow could feel every slide of their fur mixing against his body.
His forehead stung where both of them had bonked their heads together as the rope snapped into place. Shadow hoped he wouldn't develop a headache later; neither of them were delicate, but it had the same impact as slamming into a blue, concrete wall.
He struggled fiercely against the binding, arms and torso caught in its snare, but it held steadfast; not even causing a stir in the air from his frantic movements. Whatever this thing was made of, it emitted a light buzzing noise and glowed the brighest yellow with red stripes like a candy cane - not too dissimilar to the grinding rails he was so 'fond' of.
The elephant in the room addressed himself as he shouted back at Shadow, "Woah, calm down! We're both stuck in this—" He leaned backwards to dodge Shadow's flailing quills—"thing. You didn't notice it either, so why are you blaming me! I just wanted to race…" Sonic did have a point there, Shadow didn't have to race him, after all.
They had both been neck-and-neck as they zoomed through the thin corridors and were too busy battling with each other to notice an innocuous piece of rope laid across the floor - until one of them must have touched it and no, it wasn't him. He should have continued his mission and ignored Sonic the second after they'd crossed paths in a corridor, but Sonic knew exactly what buttons to press and Shadow didn't care about his mission enough.
Shadow accepted his cruel fate and stopped his futile attempt of escape. "Tsk, get out of my face," he muttered. Instead, he pulled his head back as far as he could comfortably allow, anything to get his personal space back. Sonic's usual grass tinted scent had wormed its way into Shadow's nose at the close proximity, but there was also an unusual, vanilla aroma floating around.
Such a smell was one that Shadow attributed to Rouge, ever the perfume connoisseur outside of her jewel obsession - what had Sonic been up to? Perhaps it related to Rouge not being available today, but she wouldn't need to hide something like that. The secrecy left a sour taste in his mouth and he wasn't going to acknowledge it nor did he care to know.
"Do you not like my face, Shads?" Sonic chuckled. He tutted at Sonic's atrocious use of endearment and neither of them spoke after that. Shadow took to staring at the rope, determined to either bore a hole in it with looks alone or analyse it well enough he could figure a way to get them out.
This whole thing could have been over relatively quickly, had Shadow actually chosen a Nav who could call for backup. And Sonic definitely didn't have a communicator, either.
They were well and truly trapped. Fuck.
He was finding it hard to concentrate as Sonic's chest rose and fell with his breathing, pushing and pulling against his own chest and ruffling his fur. He took Sonic's rare silence as a chosen measure - a surpisingly intelligent choice since they had limited room to breathe between them. He would enjoy it while it lasted, the chatty fucker never kept his mouth shut for long.
Shadow's neck was starting to strain in protest when Sonic opened his stupid mouth again not long after. "So," he dragged out the word and smacked his lips together, "you think this rope is what we're looking for?"
In the short time before they'd sped off into oblivion, Shadow had demanded to know why Sonic was at the facility. Sonic had given a vague shrug and mentioned 'looking for a thing' then stated whoever didn't find it had to buy the other dinner and that he wanted chilli dogs, before disappearing down the corridor. Shadow was not going to put himself into bankruptcy feeding that void of a stomach and had promptly chased after him, not thinking much more of it, other than that the mission could wait a little bit longer.
There was one thing Shadow needed to correct immediately, though. He tilted his head to face Sonic again. "We?" he scoffed, " I will be taking this rope and you are not going to get in my way." Should this be the object GUN was looking for, at least.
Sonic frowned at him - maybe they would get to race and fight today - and scoffed, "Aha, that's funny! Cause, see, I need to take this rope for Tails. He wants to study it. Not even gonna share?" Definitely going to fight. There was no way Shadow would allow Sonic to leave with all of his limbs attached if he tried to run with it. It wasn't because Shadow cared about the rope or the mission all that much, it was now about the principle of the matter; that Shadow won by having said rope and Sonic didn't.
"I'm on a mission, Sonic. I will not fail because of you," Shadow sneered. Rouge had instilled into him that it was important to keep your true intentions hidden, not that he already didn't, but Sonic was a special case and needed careful handling. It wouldn't be the first time that Sonic had prevented Shadow from completing his tasks, not always knowingly - it was like Sonic couldn't help getting in his way, it was frustrating as fuck. Case in point, their current situation; Shadow was not admitting any fault for this one, though.
Today, it seemed Sonic was willfully poking the hypothetical sleeping tiger as he leaned into Shadow's space, "Well, good luck with that, 'cause you already did!" he taunted with a smirk. Shadow bristled in anger - his back spikes didn't even make a dent in the rope as they flared.
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused."
The cheeky smile Sonic donned as he chirped his response was not doing him any favours in soothing Shadow's rage. It was definitely on purpose. He continued gleefully as if he wasn't being stared down by the living weapon with an arsenal of sharp teeth and claws. "You failed, Shads. Yer stuck with lil' ol' me in the rope!" And wasn't that just the kicker - Shadow both respected and hated Sonic's ability to pin point the truth from any situation, because again, he wasn't wrong. It pissed Shadow off and he couldn't even use his best weapons because they were trapped in the rope!
"I will bite you." Hopefully, Sonic wouldn't call his bluff. He could attempt to snag Sonic's shoulder, but with no clear escape, the blood would be a bitch to stick around with. He didn't want to stain his chest fluff again either - that had been a mentally painful time of regrowth after he was forced to shave it down. Never again.
"Ooh, kinky!" Sonic chuckled as he winked back, to Shadow's ire. Scratch that, Shadow needed to do something drastic, now.
Remembering his legs were swinging wild and free, Shadow punted his boot into Sonic's shin, hard. The resounding yelp was cathartic to his ears, knowing his heavy shoes would be doing the brunt of the damage with such little space to work with.
Blood on his chest was one thing, but on his dark fur he couldn't care less - it would dry and it would be annoying to wash out, but at least it wouldn't leave a visible stain. "Ow! You are so petty, you know that?" Sonic whined, his eyes welled up with unshed tears. It was a good look for him.
"And you have kickable shins, don't mind me," Shadow booted Sonic's other leg with sadistic vigour as Sonic let out another cry.
"Oh, it is so on, you jerk!" Sonic groaned, before returning a kick to Shadow's leg. Regrettably, he could not dodge Sonic's shoes, but in turn, Sonic could not dodge his. In the law of physics, heavier objects will have more downward force - suffice to say, Sonic's soft-soled running shoes were underwhelming compared to his steel monstrosities.
The corridor echoed back their aggressive cries, curses and growls as they both attacked at one another. The stupid rope held strong despite their rough play, swaying like it was a gentle breeze - what was this thing made of?
Sonic's legs had to be pitifully bruised (though Shadow had no way of seeing) by the time he panted out, "Ow, oww, hey, alright, alright, stop!" Shadow paused with his boot pressed upon Sonic's thigh as he whined, "I'm not gonna be able to run if you kick me anymore!" Sonic pouted at Shadow, but he was not so easily swayed by such tricks.
"Tough shit," Shadow grumbled. For good measure, Shadow landed one last kick to the leg he'd rested on as Sonic grunted in pain. "But fine, I'll grant your legs my mercy, for now." He could at least declare himself the victor of their battle, that was enough to settle him.
"Thanks, so kind of you," Sonic muttered. Neither of them spoke again after that, their frustration having cooled off somewhat with their antics. They turned away from each other, only the sound of their pounding heartbeats and heavy breathing lingered in the negligible space between them.
The forced proximity was becoming a challenge for Shadow; the rope was merely an afterthought given it didn't hurt and he hadn't experienced such close personal contact in a long time. When they fought, skinship was constant but it was in batches of fleeting touch and filled with rage; punches, kicks, even the occassional bite.
Unlike now, where he was forced to focus on nothing else than Sonic's fur rubbing against his own as they breathed - he had never taken the time to consider, or rather, he hadn't considered at all, how soft it was. It was oddly disarming and now that he had acknowledged it, the sensation did the opposite of how he wanted to feel - it calmed him down.
He couldn't help remarking on how Sonic even had such soft fur, considering the bastard slept out in the wild willingly most days. It couldn't be his diet, Shadow would not accept that chilli dogs had any healthy component and from the sheer density of them that he swallowed on a daily basis surely it should have made Sonic one greasy motherfucker by now. As disgusting as it was to imagine, they could have escaped from the rope by now with it, Shadow was sure.
"I'm so bored…" Sonic yawned. It hadn't even been 5 minutes.
"Deal with it," he grumbled.
Shadow should have known better, he did know better, than to expect Sonic to deal with anything in a sane or rational manner. It was predictable for Sonic to take it in his stride, his chest rumbling as he laughed, "Okay, I will!" The warm breath against his ear as Sonic leaned too far into his space was not and he crooned low, "Wanna make out?"
Fur raising at the bassy, smooth tone, unlike anything Shadow had heard from Sonic's stupid mouth, he instead became perplexed. Make out? Make out what - the futility of their situation? He was never going to admit he didn't know what the fuck Sonic was on about, so he answered predictably in the low hopes Sonic would go back onto script. "No."
Some wishful thinking returned to him when Sonic whined, as he always did when Shadow rejected his ridiculous whims, "Aww, c'mon Shads, it's just a bit of fun!" That was one word for what Sonic got up to in his spare time, 'chaos' was the word Shadow found more apt.
His mistake had been to not ignore Sonic further, rather than attempting to convince Sonic that to 'make out' was not worth either of their time.
"I'm not making out anything with you, so be quiet!"
Sonic pulled away and stared at him with an incredulous look. Shit, he'd been had already. Shadow blamed the shortage of oxygen Sonic was stealing from the air with all his mouth breathing.
An annoying smirk crept onto Sonic's face as he lowered his eyelids and teased, "You don't know what it means, do you?"
Shadow scoffed, "Of course I do!"
"Okay, tell me."
Grunting in frustration, Shadow didn't speak again, hoping Sonic would spontaneously combust from the heat of his glare so they could both be put out of their trapped misery. But no, there was no explosion and Sonic's fur continued to softly stroke against his own as Sonic giggled - a full on fucking giggle that didn't sound nice in the slightest - and smiled, "Aww Shads, that's so cute!"
It's a shame the ground was too far away to swallow him whole, this was humiliating.
"Fuck off." Shadow growled, turning his head to the side to burn a hole into the wall with his glare instead. Could this day get any worse? His shoes were feeling mighty heavy and ready for a second kicking session right about now.
Before he could act on his violent delights, Sonic shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to get his attention back. He said, "Hey, it's all good, no judgement here." His earlier comments would disagree.
"Shads-" Ugh, why did he always use that nickname, "-come on, look at me." He didn't want to, but the soft insistance in Sonic's voice had him begrudgingly glancing in his direction. His face had lost it's teasing smirk and was replaced with good-natured pep.
"It means kissing."
Oh. That kind of making out. He couldn't believe he'd missed such an obvious point, but perhaps it was the sheer absurdity of doing it with this blue bastard that it hadn't even crossed his mind. Rouge would be shaking her head with disappointment right now that her teachings had failed him.
"No."
Letting out a huff of confused amusement, Sonic said, "No to what?! What it means or—"
"We are not kissing!" Sonic had clearly lost almost all his braincells in their impact and was left with one, drooling amoeba crawling inside his skull.
They were almost back on script as Sonic whined again, drawling his words with tangible disappointment, "What, why not?"
"Why would we even do that?"
With a straight face, which made it all the more honest and shameless, Sonic said, "You're in my 'People I Wanna Make Out With' bucket list."
In complete bafflement, Shadow could only stutter in astonished surprise, "W-Why!?"
What benefit did Sonic gain from locking lips with him?
They weren't that amicable for a start and for Gaia's sake, they're rivals. Though, he suspected Rouge would be eagerly pushing from the sidelines to do it anyway, if she were here. 'It would be so hot!', he could hear her hypothetically shouting from his shoulder; there was a reason Shadow didn't listen to her most of the time outside of missions and now she'd weaseled her way into his psyche. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Continuing to make a bigger fool of himself, Sonic's smirk returned as he teased, "I can admit even your eyes look pretty in the right lighting." Unbelievable…
"Is that your best attempt to convince me?" Shadow sneered as his heart beat faster.
"Nope." He pulled a cheeky smile, "Is it working, though?"
Shadow wanted to rip that boyish grin right off of his stupid face. What a waste of his time. "You are insufferable," he tutted and looked away again.
He shivered as Sonic's warm breath caressed upon his ear again and crooned, "You didn't say no." That scent of vanilla embedded itself into Shadow's nose and perhaps it had simply been a Pavlovian response to Rouge's hugs that were nice and warm as that aroma wafted around or the fact he didn't want to admit that maybe it was working just a bit as Little Rouge prodded at his shoulder, but he couldn't help the way it broke down his defences against Sonic's advances.
Swallowing down a gulp, Shadow didn't respond and hoped Sonic would move away. It was useless as he stayed put and whispered into Shadow's ear, "Kissing me would keep me quiet, you'd like that."
Yes, he would like that very much if Sonic could stop talking now before they got that far. Desperate to claw back any semblance of power, Shadow growled, "I am actually going to bite you."
Chuckling into his ear, because Sonic had no shame or sense of impending danger, he said, "On the lips, I hope." That vanilla was dangerously overpowering, yet still strangely familiar, growing stronger everytime Sonic breathed… as if it was like her chewing gum.
"You were with Rouge earlier, what were you doing?" He didn't know why it was important, but it suddenly became integral for him to have this information.
It worked in getting Sonic to lean back as he gasped, "Dude, how did you know?!"
So it had been a secret on both ends - what was this, a tryst? Why did that hurt to find out Rouge didn't want to tell him what she was actually up to? Seething now, Shadow hissed, "Your breath smells like her chewing gum, idiot!" How could he have been so blind as to not recognise that Rouge also carried vanilla gum around like it was out of fashion.
"Oh?" Sonic's ear flicked and his grin turned impish, "Ohhh, I getcha now." He leaned in to say, "You're jealous I got to her first."
Shadow scoffed in disgust, "Ugh, absolutely not!"
Lifting a brow, Sonic teased, "Ah, you're jealous you didn't get to me first then?"
Shadow's patience was wearing thin. "What were you doing with Rouge, hedgehog!"
Finally, he got an answer as Sonic spoke like it was a shopping list, "Pretty tame, actually, we went for a walk through town, got some grub, talked about how grumpy you always are for about an hour. Oh, wait, that's not true, we went straight to a cafe 'cause of the weather."
He did the mature thing and ignored Sonic's jab, but that didn't mean he intended to respond until Sonic gave him an actual answer.
Sonic chuckled at his stare, as if it wasn't threatening in the slightest, giving a small smile as he spoke softly, "Rouge just gave me some of her gum before we split ways, that's all. Happy now?" He pretended his relief was at the fact Rouge hadn't been doing something intimate with Sonic behind his back.
"Fine," he humphed.
They went back to awkward silence, after that. Of course, that only meant Sonic would try harder.
"Tell you what-" oh Gaia, here we go again, "-I stay quiet and you get a kissing lesson, how does that sound?" Desperation had to be getting to Shadow, it was the only reason he could accept that it didn't sound like an unreasonable offer, that and the oxygen deprivation he was clearly suffering from.
It was still an insult to suggest he was so inexperienced, though, and he said as much with a scoff, "What makes you think I need kissing lessons?"
"Simple, have you actually kissed anyone before?"
Well, no, he hadn't, but that wasn't the point!
"I am the Ultimate Lifeform, I am good at everything I do and I don't need to prove anything, especially not to you." It was spoken with such confidence, and yet, why did Shadow feel as though he'd fallen into a trap as Sonic smirked with a sharp gleam in his narrowed eyes.
It was the same look Sonic gave as he nipped at the back of his shoes with his own and Shadow would turn his head around to glare back at the cocky bastard; the same look when Sonic somehow knew he'd won in their race, but he wasn't over the finish line or even past Shadow yet; the same look just before Sonic achieved ultimate victory in battle.
Sonic chuckled darkly, a resolute stare in his eyes, "I bet you're only being this dramatic because you think you'd be a terrible kisser."
Fucking— Fine. Fine! To hell with it and these stupid traps - there was nothing else to do in this godforsaken place and Shadow was going to have to prove his point this one time only so Sonic could shut the hell up about it. The little Rouge on his shoulder was a traitorous witch as she yelled into his ear with glee, 'Do it! Do it!'
Sonic would definitely be a bad kisser with his selfish attitude - it would suck and then they could move on and never speak about it again. Most importantly, Shadow would come away as the victor, the better kisser - it was about the competition, of course, nothing else.
With a growl, he surged forward to press his mouth to Sonic's own, hard - it was his signature style. Little Rouge cheered. Sonic responded with a grunt before Shadow pulled away, to find a look of awe on Sonic's face. "Wow, that was…".
Dread sunk into his stomach as Sonic's face twisted into a look of pity and an apologetic smile, "Awful, Shads, sorry…"
Was this his personal hell - stuck with Sonic in an unbreakable rope and forced to listen to his ridiculous babble and stupidity for all eternity after sacrificing his first kiss to said idiot? Just let him die, already!
Sonic seemed none the wiser to Shadow's internal turmoil as he continued his teasing; he clearly found amusement in his, now evident, inexperience. "Where did you learn how to kiss, an old booklet?"
Actually, Sonic wasn't that far off hitting the nail on the head, except it had come in the form of a precocious, young girl. Maria would read him bedtime stories about princesses and their knights with their true love's kisses. Then she would peck him goodnight on the head, all chaste-like. One could hardly call that an education on the matter. He was at least more clued up on his knowledge about sex these days, no thanks to Rouge's influence, but Shadow digressed.
His pride still stung though and he couldn't pass up on insulting Sonic any chance he got, "As if you're a good kisser."
"I am actually! I'm a serial kisser, like a serial killer but I'm good at kissing!" How could Sonic not realise how ridiculous he sounded? The cognitive dissonance baffled Shadow with every new, stupid line that came out of Sonic's mouth.
"Since when? I've never seen it." Who would want to kiss Sonic when he was coming up with such bad material all the time, that's what Shadow wanted to know. Amy didn't count in Shadow's books, she was… an outlier.
"Dude, I'm not going around smooching everyone on sight, I've got standards." Debatable. "Besides, it's usually in the sheets if you catch my drift…", Sonic raised his eyebrows towards Shadow in a suggestive manner, with a cheeky smile to boot.
Unfortunately, Shadow did know what Sonic was insinuating, which begged the question - Sonic was having sex!? He didn't do very well to hide the shock off his face as he took in Sonic's appearance in a new light, and Sonic laughed at him again, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm surprised anyone can handle being around you long enough to get that far."
Rather than taking Shadow's comment as the dig it was, Sonic took it in his stride as he usually did, his laughter continuing, "What can I say? I'm a good lay - hey, that rhymed!"
Sighing heavily, Shadow hoped this wouldn't come back to bite him. This was the moron that he was stuck with, and would be getting kissing lessons from, if only to get him quiet while they waited for rescue. He was going to write today off as a fluke from normality, and shove the memory so deep into his brain it could never be recovered. Gaia knows Rouge would get a kick out of it, if she ever found out. Which if Shadow had anything to do with it, she never would.
"Fine. Teach me, then," Shadow grumbled. This better be worth his dignity and time back, Shadow was already regretting agreeing to it. Though, a shameful part of himself deep down was curious about the whole kissing thing, not that he thought he was missing out after his attempt.
Sonic lit up like a fucking blue glowstick, what was he so excited for?
"Okay, okay, um- hold still!" Such reassurance was not giving him any confidence that he was in expert hands, at all.
It then dawned on Shadow that kissing meant Sonic getting closer, as the waft of vanilla grew in strength again. Shit, he didn't feel ready. Warmth bloomed over his muzzle as Sonic's breathing tickled it and Shadow inverted his lips into his mouth, sealing them away from the serial kissing bastard. Sonic huffed as he noticed what Shadow was doing, then his voice tickled against Shadow's ear.
"How am I supposed to teach you if I can't kiss you, Shads?" Sonic spoke soft and low again, and it sent a buzz down Shadow's spine to his crotch as he shivered. Fuck, he couldn't get aroused by Sonic's voice, he'd rather shove his hand into a blender than acknowledge it. Shadow huffed in defiance but complied by releasing his mouth. It wasn't like him to get cold feet, but intimacy was an old, and thus alien, terrain to Shadow.
Sonic surprised him by starting with a simple peck once he'd returned his lips to the cold air. It lasted only a second, quicker than Shadow had time to react to, but once it was over Shadow secretly missed the warmth. It had also, annoyingly, gone much smoother than his own attempt, but he wasn't about to say that the blue bastard was better at anything. Especially not to his face, he did not need the ego boost.
"There, that's how you kiss!" Sonic exclaimed.
…Is that it? The thought must have shown through his unimpressed face, because Sonic smirked at him and said, "Oh, we're just warming up. You seemed hesitant, so I didn't wanna drop you in the deep end." It was a surprisingly intelligent remark from someone with one remaining sloppy braincell.
Shadow had surmised a long time ago that luck was the only reason Sonic had survived this long (and perhaps he was actually good at being a hero half the time) with his record of antics. And that same luck had gotten him a smooch with Shadow, of all people.
'Stop messing around and shut up' is what Shadow hoped Sonic could read from his face. It was a fleeting wish, unfortunately, as Sonic kept talking anyway. "So, this time, do what I did when I kissed you. You've gotta push your lips out" Sonic gave a silly demonstration as he puckered his lips, "I wanna kiss a person, not a brick wall, 'kay?"
Nodding was the only thing Shadow felt capable of now. He didn't acknowledge his own desire, stubborn as he was, to get that warmth back. Still, he pursed his lips as Sonic came closer again and shut his eyes. This time, his breath hitched as their mouths pressed wetly against each other before releasing.
Was it supposed to sound so gross? The noise left Shadow feeling even more awkward, but the kiss itself felt nice if a bit moist, he could admit. Sonic audibly swallowed as he pulled away. His voice was quieter this time as he spoke, and he stayed close, his vanilla breath tickling against Shadow's lips. "Now, do that a couple times and tilt your face opposite of mine."
Leaning his head to the side at Sonic's instruction, their mouths slotted together softly. They kissed several times without pulling away. It shouldn't feel as natural or as nice as it did, to kiss his rival.
The unsolved problem that had floated at the back of Shadow's head since earlier, at how Sonic was able to get others into bed with him, finally clicked into place. And the answer was that once Sonic put his mouth to good use, he was much more sufferable to be around. Not that Shadow was suddenly compelled to sleep with the bastard, absolutely not, but it made sense now.
Sonic was a decent kisser, that's the highest praise Shadow was willing to give.
Sonic's breath stuttered as he pulled back again - his muzzle was flush and his green eyes had a glazed sheen - appearing more impacted than Shadow had expected from 'Mr. Serial Kisser'. Sonic's voice wobbled before settling as he cleared his throat, "I'm gonna stop… talking now, follow my lead." Finally.
They fell into a stupor, the part that broke through his thoughts unbidden long after they had escaped the room, as they both closed their eyes and joined back together. Kissing like this, with the cycle of pressure and release, and the slickness of Sonic's lips, felt hypnotising. The smell of vanilla turned into the light taste of vanilla as it painted itelf onto Shadow's lips.
It really was his second favourite flavour and he couldn't help a light, appreciative huff as he savoured the lingering taste and the effervescent aroma they passed between each other. Shadow struggled to keep any train of thought going as Sonic then nibbled on his bottom lip. Damn, that felt good. Shadow made the ultimate effort to not show how much it had impacted him, but his breathing shuddered.
"You like that?" Sonic whispered against him, before he upped the ante and kissed Shadow even faster with little nips in between. Fuck. Sonic needed to Stop. Talking. Or Shadow was going to spontaneously combust from arousal.
Their crotches were dangerously pressed together. To Shadow's relief neither of them were hard; anymore of this and he might be, though. They were playing a risky game and it shouldn't excite him, but as Rouge had once told him to his dramatic disgust; Shadow was a slut for danger.
Sonic whispered again after he sucked Shadow's lip with a tasty pop as he released it, "Bite my lip, Shads." Shadow refused to oblige, he wanted Sonic to stop using that nickname. He was caught off guard by Sonic's sudden, high-pitch whine. "Please, I want it." Fuck, fuck, fuck - Sonic had never sounded so… submissive. 'So breedable!' Little Rouge piped in, the unhelpful bitch.
Shadow couldn't resist such a plea, not even from his bitter rival as he was caught up in the moment. The groan Sonic gave in return as he gently took Sonic's bottom lip by his teeth seared itself into Shadow's memory, and his dick twitched. Gaia, Shadow hoped Sonic hadn't felt that.
Desperation and desire growing, they both took turns heatedly kissing and biting at each other's mouths, and leaning closer into each other as they breathed heavily through their noses. Sonic had taken to licking at his mouth as well, which Shadow returned, it felt good too, but not as much as the biting. Shadow felt Sonic tangle and lock a leg with his own, and then pulled. The motion rocked their crotches together and Sonic moaned his loudest yet. Shadow's mouth opened wide from the pleasure as he gasped.
Taking advantage of this, Sonic pushed his tongue into Shadow's mouth. It was a strange, sensual ritual as Sonic's tongue danced with his and he tried to mimic what Sonic was doing. It was getting difficult to hold himself back from moaning, but Shadow refused to lose this final battle of willpower. The taste of vanilla was strong now and Shadow wanted more of it.
When Sonic pulled his tongue away, Shadow's own chased it back into Sonic's mouth to get more of the vanilla flavour, and he sucked Sonic's tongue right back into his own mouth. Sonic must have really liked that as he choked on his moan, muffled further by his tongue held hostage.
'Where it belonged', Shadow's lustful thoughts broke through to suggest, but it wasn't Little Rouge who had spoken those words into existence this time.
Shadow couldn't tell who had started it but they were now fiercely rutting against each other, half hard and unable to hide it as their bulges pressed together. "I wanna touch you," Sonic whispered soft onto Shadow's lips. Shadow almost keened at the thought.
If this kept up, he'd end up doing something he really shouldn't, the rising heat cloying against Shadow's rational thoughts. Pandora's Box needed to stay shut, but Sonic made an impressive temptor, with his tongue as the key slotting into Shadow's mouth, the lock.
Sonic's tongue slid and twisted against his own, unlocking the latch to Shadow's sacred treasure beneath; open and vulnerable. Overwhelmed, he couldn't suppress his moan any longer.
However, his voice and their make out session was rudely interrupted as a loud, high pitch interference echoed across the room as a familiar voice broke over the wet silence with a dramatic laugh. "I is I! Eggma—" Eggman's own words cut off as a sputtered cough bounced over the comms, his shock audible.
The pair jolted away from each other like their lips were electrified; a sticky string of spit pulled and snapped from their open mouths as they panted, wide eyed. He watched as the string settled upon Sonic's bottom lip and chin, feeling the matcing sensation on his own. Shadow shouldn't find that arousing in the slightest, he couldn't even wipe his mouth dry.
Regardless, his relief was palpable that Pandora's Box stayed sealed shut, just. Shadow avoided Sonic's attempt to make eye contact and focused on Eggman's voice booming around the room. This was not a good look for him at all.
Eggman yelled over the comms, "Why are you two vermins fraternising on my property?! Abhorrent!"
Shadow couldn't muster the will to speak, but Sonic always spoke for more than one as he yelled back, "Wow, Egghead! Didn't take you for such a bigot!"
Eggman scoffed, "I am NOT a bigot. How dare you desecrate my property with your nasty mating habits. Shadow, I am most disappoin—"
"Heh, wanna see me do it again?" Sonic taunted at the ceiling. Shadow's lips were suddenly recaptured as he heard a scream of 'NO!' break out over the speakers. Their kiss was quickly broken by Sonic unable to stop his laughter from taking over. In his glee, Sonic nuzzled his cheek against Shadow's as if to physically spread his joy to the other, his chuckle jostling them both.
With his hands incapacitated, Shadow could do nothing but allow it to happen, grumbling like the pissy cat he was. Pretending he didn't secretly enjoy the feeling of soft fur against his own muzzle, even if it was his rival who he just… swapped spit with. Ugh.
"Stop this uncouth behaviour at once!" Eggman's voice became so shrill it peaked on the mic.
Sonic chuckled again and turned his head to look up at the general direction of Eggman's voice again, eyebrow raised. "What are you, my gramps?"
Eggman's huff of frustration ruffled over the mic, "No matter, you are both stuck within my trap now. It figures neither of you would be intelligent enough to notice before it was too late. You see-"
As Eggman ranted, Sonic leaned into Shadow's ear to stage whisper, "Think we can make out again while he's monologuing?" His responding shiver of anticipation pissed him off, Shadow shouldn't want this!
"I can still hear you, Rat! Once I—" A sudden crash and boom, heard not too far away, was a welcome addition. Eggman went quiet over the line before a new, but familiar girlish voice piped up on the same channel.
"Eggman is incapacitated! I'll get you guys outta here." Shadow sighed in relief that his hellish torture of skinship could finally end, and Sonic cheered Amy's name.
As Amy was getting them free from the binding, she explained her side of events to Shadow. Unbeknownst to him, Amy and Tails had been waiting outside for Sonic. Similar to G.U.N, Tails had detected a discrepancy in the energy levels around the base, and they decided to investigate. It was purely coincidence that they had both been at the facility on this day for the same reason.
Knowing Sonic was bound to get distracted, they hadn't questioned his lateness or his lack of communication straight away. It was only once Tails had noted another odd signature that could only spell Eggman that they chose to take action. Making the authorative decision, Amy had bravely made her entry into the building alone, thankfully bereft of Badniks. It didn't take long to find them with Eggman's voice blaring in the distance. She had spotted Sonic, and to her suprise Shadow as well, dangling from a strange looking rope and chose to deal with Eggman first.
She had snuck up on him a few rooms down, where he had been standing at a Comms Station unaware of Amy's presence. It only took one hearty bash from her Piko Piko Hammer to knock him out. Definitely not one of Eggman's more well-thought out plans, they wrote it off as the evil genius reaping from slim pickings after Sonic did a number on him and his army previously. The trap must have been laid before everything even went down and had been reactivated not long before now - with nefarious intent to lure them in.
Finally freed, Shadow took to stretching out his shoulders and appreciating solid ground, Sonic appeared to be doing the same. He noticed Sonic was limping slightly as he walked towards Amy, which gave him a small satisfaction thinking back on their kicking match. His bruised lips were hard to ignore, impossible not to think about anything of what they just did everytime a spot of blue fur crept into his periphery - he had to make the conscious effort to not touch his fingertips to his lips, like some blushing maiden.
Sonic seemed nonplussed walking towards the exit of the room as he chatted shit to Amy, as always. It really meant that little to him? It made sense, logically speaking; Sonic had told him he was the "serial kisser", ergo he kissed a lot of people. They should go back to normal (their normal at least) and Shadow should bury the memory six feet under. Shadow shouldn't feel so… he didn't know what he felt, disgust perhaps, but it left a pit in his stomach that Sonic was not affected by it like Shadow was.
His spiralling thoughts were interrupted as his boot caught against the rope, now laying prone on the floor; he should take it while Sonic wasn't paying attention. Picking it up and wrapping it around his palm, he could still feel a faint buzz of energy - good, that meant it could be investigated and he wouldn't fail his mission despite Sonic's perspective on the matter. He tried to stash the rope into his quills but apparently there was a capacity limit and the rope was too long to be accomodated.
Sighing, Shadow hid it behind his back instead, it was a futile attempt to keep Sonic's attention off of it before he could escape them both. Other than the sound of Sonic and Amy talking as they made their way out of the base, Shadow silently followed from behind before making a clean break by a fork in the corridor. Neither of the gobby two had noticed and he made light work of climbing through some vents before he found a specific hatch which would bring him to the roof.
Standing as a cool breeze dusted off his shoulders, Shadow had the thought that maybe he should start searching for an emerald again in the near future, he just needed to get this rope dropped off first.
Settling against a railing, he stared out towards the horizon. The sun was beginning to set already and it painted a decent scenery with the spattering of little forests breaking out. Rouge was fast to answer his call considering she was supposed to be off-duty, almost too fast, her voice was tinny from the compressed audio, "Hi, darling, you got the goods? I'm sure you do!"
Shadow tested the weight of the rope by bouncing it between his hands as he replied, "Affirmative. It's a special device." He listed off its material properties, how it felt to the touch, and the length as he observed the rope.
Droning his observations to Rouge and well practiced at the skill meant his thoughts started to drift. Finally alone, he allowed himself to lightly brush his fingers against his lips. It tickled but there wasn't the same warmth that Sonic brought.
"Where should I—mff!?"
His chin had swiftly been lifted to the side and his bottom lip caught between the teeth of one cocky, soon-to-be-dead bastard - his quills flared up from the shock. The vanilla aroma had faded by now which would have been Sonic's only fleeting hope to prevent Shadow's ire from returning ten-fold instead of two-fold.
It was less than a second before Sonic pulled back and whispered, "Offer's always open, Shads."
Shadow felt justified to yell at him as he pushed Sonic's chest away, his muzzle warmer as he shouted, "Serial kissing whore!" Shadow suprised even himself at his words and how loud he'd been.
Distracted enough by how outlandish it sounded, Sonic even had time to bellow out a laugh at his expense without retaliation. Rouge's voice tinted with confused alarm (she assumed he had accused her!) bouced around in his ear, to boot. Regaining his bearings, Shadow growled as he leapt forward to grab at Sonic, but the bastard dodged his grip. Sonic proceeded to add fuel to the fire as he slipped out of reach again by winking and blowing Shadow a kiss.
Astounded at Sonic's behaviour, Shadow tsked as he turned away and willed his blushing cheeks to rest, he had bigger things to deal with like getting that damn rope… the rope?… Shadow looked at his now empty, weightless palms. He swung around to find Sonic dangling it from his palm and giving him a shit eating grin. "Didn't think you could sneak away just like that, did ya?" Sonic taunted.
"You're fucking dead, hedgehog!"
Sonic continued to dodge all his swipes for the rope, laughing all the while as Shadow yelled threats at him, "I'll rip your mouth off!"
Shadow was mad and now there was no rope to hold him back from making good on his threats from everything Sonic had put him through today. Sonic must have sensed his dark intent as he turned to run from the edge of the roof to jump down into the treeline, a worried chuckle leaving him.
Rouge broke through his rage to ask, "Shadow, what's going on?!"
Shadow could only reply with a straight answer as he made chase, "Motherfucker stole my rope!"
Rouge laughed, "Who, Sonic? Or the serial kissing whore?" No one except him took their job seriously around here apparently - he was surrounded by the most ridiculous, mind-numbingly frustrating batch of idiots.
"Sonic, obviously!" Shadow replied as he jumped after Sonic. He chose not to speak further on Rouge's snarky comments, zoning in on Sonic's retreating body zooming ahead.
The chase was remarkably short - his fruit had ripened to harvest not even a minute in as Sonic's leg buckled beneath him and he rolled into a tree stump before laying prone; Shadow must have done a good number on his legs earlier. Good. Ripping the rope from Sonic's failing grip, he didn't bother with a winning quip as usual, quite fed up with today and having been kissed enough for a lifetime.
He gave one last memorable kick to Sonic's nearest shin, enjoying the yelp it produced as Sonic whined at him, "Aw, come on dude. Don't kick a guy when he's down!"
Not wanting to stick around any longer, he hissed at Rouge down the line, "Where the fuck do they want this thing?"
He growled as Rouge responded with a chuckle, "Which one? The rope or the serial kissing whore?"
With one last look at Sonic's groaning form, Shadow stomped away for good.
Idiots, all of them.
Later that evening, Rouge's phone vibrated as a message came through:
'Ur right, that gum is grt 4kising!'
Tutting at the atrocious grammar and spelling, she sent back to Sonic:
'As I said, Shadow likes vanilla.'
Pausing, she felt it reasonable to add:
'Buy your own next time.'
Rouge only helped him out this once for her own amusement at their unresolved tension, though it certainly had been a remarkably fast turnaround. Then again, when had Sonic ever taken anything slow.
Shadow was his to deal with from now on - she'd only set the catalyst into motion.